The Premier League champions once again failed in the Champions League this season, but remain with a chance of catching Manchester United at the top of the table, while they booked a place in the FA Cup fifth round with a 1-0 win at Stoke on Saturday.

Platt told reporters: "The target of this club is to win trophies, that’s what we’re set up to do. The manager wants to win everything he is in.

"We feel we are involved in both competitions and feel we have the capability of winning both. The fact we went out of Europe means there is not really a backlog of games.

"If we continue to progress there is a league campaign, so we’ll have to rearrange games but that shouldn’t really put us off it. We were very disappointed when we went out in the third round last year because our 2011 win gave us a taste and a belief for it."

Gareth Barry also admitted the FA Cup had assumed greater significance and praised his side’s determination both against the Potters and in the league despite the absence of influential Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure, who is at the Africa Cup of Nations.

"The FA Cup was always a priority. But with no European football, it’s going to be a massive trophy if we can get to Wembley," he explained.

"It was a freezing cold day, away at Stoke and we lost our captain. There were excuses. But the lads rolled their sleeves up. It shows the mentality of the club. We got rid of the hoodoo at Arsenal and it’s been a while since we won at Stoke as well.

"In the league, the gap is there, so we cannot afford to let that grow any more if we want to end up champions again.

"With Yaya Toure gone, it’s made it a bit tougher. But we’ve really got together as a team. We’ve upped our game so if we can keep on winning games while he’s away, then he’ll only add to what we are doing."